Dr Pamela L. Gay is an astronomer, writer, and podcaster focused on using new media to engage people in science and technology. Explore online, learn, and discover!Browsing all posts in "Psuedoscience".
Ghosts are NOT Dark Matter
Just a quick one tonight.
At Dragon*Con (which I won’t mention again until next summer) some fascinatingly misguided person suggested that ghosts are made of Dark Matter. Dark matter is the missing 22% of the stuff the universe is made of. This is stuff – it is just stuff that doesn’t interact with the electromagnetic force [...]
Name a Star (not), Name a Theory (maybe), Name an Asteroid (certainly)
The names of things in astronomy are quite random in origin and often quite awful for no good reason. Now, there are exceptions, but… In general. Wow. Are the astronomers who get to name things using up all their creativity in their analysis?
For some reason the names of things in astronomy have come up many [...]
Left Behind by those who Judged
One of my colleagues sent me a link to what is by far one of the most disturbing websites I think I have ever seen (and I had a friend who used to work very hard to try and creep me out). It’s safe for work, but your reaction may or may not be. The [...]
Astrology vs String Theory
The scientific method requires good scientific theories to build theories based on observations/experiments that make specific predictions about the outcomes of future observations/experiments. It’s okay if we don’t currently have the technology to make an observation. Theories are perfectly capable of sitting on shelves waiting to be proven right or wrong. What matters – what makes the theory science – is that the theory is eventually provable (or disprovable).
So, how do I deal with string theory?
